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“Americans expect their public lands to supply more energy for today, but they also expect more parks, wilderness and open space for tomorrow,” Babbitt said in a speech at the National Press Club. “And that balance, between development and land conservation, is not being maintained.”

Over the past four years, he said, industry has leased more than 6 million acres compared with the 2.6 million acres that have been permanently protected. “In the Obama era, land conservation is again falling behind,” he said. “This lopsided public-land administration in favor of the oil and gas industry shouldn’t continue.”

A spokeswoman at the Interior Department said it long sought to balance its “all-of-the-above” energy strategy with conservation policies and made “unprecedented investments to protect and restore vital lands and waters that support local economies.”

Babbitt acknowledged that Obama “starts with one significant handicap: Unlike his predecessors, he cannot count on even minimal cooperation from a Congress that is more interested in throwing itself off metaphorical cliffs than protecting any real ones.”

So Obama will need to rely on his executive powers, such as the Antiquities Act of 1906, he said, which allows the president to designate national monuments and restrict the use of certain public lands without congressional approval.

Babbitt made a similar plea to Obama when he spoke at the press club in June 2011 on the 105th anniversary of the act. During that speech, he mocked “munchkins” at the White House for backing down from what he dubbed an assault from Republicans over the issue.

On Tuesday, Babbitt was noticeably more benign in his comments toward the administration, including praising Obama for new fuel-efficiency standards, doubling the production of renewable energy and “historic action” to limit carbon-dioxide emissions.

He praised outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s moves to protect millions of acres of wilderness and hundreds of miles of scenic rivers, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for using the Antiquities Act to create four national monuments.

“The president’s record on conservation to date, however, is only a beginning,” he said. “In a second term, he must extend that work with the same clarity and vigor that he devoted to climate, energy and conservation in his inaugural address.”